REPORT TO THE CONVENTION OF NEWS & LETTERS COMMITTEES OCTOBER 20, 1973

1=> e r s 1=> e c t i v e s 1973

BY RAYA DUNAYEVSKAYA, Na~ional Chairwoman

1 9 74

I WAR AND PRACTICING WAR BY OTHER MEANS •••••••••••••••• 1 The Secretary of State with the Mailed Fist: While Watergate, on.the one hand, a11d spontaneous· revolts on the other, did more than undermine Nixon-. Kissinger• s "Year of Europe," the counter-revolution in Chile and the war in the Middle Eas.t disclosed new forms. of rn-!ction.

II THE ECONOMY, l'HE 'WILDCATS, THE UNREST VS. 11 CO!y1PETITIVE DECADENqEn •. ~ o •.• o. o ~ o o •,. •.• o. • • • • ~ • o • ~ o 6

III Ph"'LOSOPHY'AND REVOLUTION AS AN ON-GOING PROCESS.; .10 'Dialectics as Absolute Method, as absolute negativity; determines, for Marxists, Hegel's Absolutes as New Beginnings--but as a process rather than a cnnclusion.

IV TASKS • •••••. I ••• • ••••••••••••••• I ... 0 ••••••••••••••••• I. 16

Post-Convention Bulll!ltin 4U November, 1973

News & Letters Detroit, Mich. 48207 35¢

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Raya DunayevskAya

PERSPECTIVES REPORT lq73-1174

I WAR AND PRACTICING 'NAR BY OTHER MEANS

Has any cne here counted the myriad fostering tensions, sharp class struggles, endless crises, youth revolt and counter-revolution, at homo and abroad, during the g short weeks that have elapsed since the Draft Perspectives·, dated August 20?

The ''year of Europe" disappeared Into the year of Watergate, then became the year of wildcats, but, from above, paved the way for reversals and became the year of counter-revolution In Chile, followed by eruption of war ln.the Middle East--but while the threat of world war lmbeddeci therein still hangs over us, out .exploded the posltlv.e--none but t.he Thai youth, Thai people; o•Jerthrowlng their military all in this year of unre­solved contradlctlor:s, No, we are not In any Ivory tower·when we de­clare It· to be the w•ar of philosophy and revolution!

For the moment, let's concentrate on ,the negative objective situation as It comes through our fork-tongued Secretary of State Kissinger who, at one and the same time, pronounced that Russia Is a 'responsible" super­power, but threatened: "We shall resist aggressive foreign policy. Detente cannot survive Irresponsibility In any area, Including the Middle East."

l'he few phases of Nixon's c0unter-revolution that have aborted· (or at least been exposed) and have gi;1en us a momentary breathing space, have been followed with C•:ngresslonaland academic eupho,rla

·around the new lntellectueils:lc SeC'retary of State·wlth the mailed fist. Too many. have already forgotten that It was Kissinger who kept the Vietnam War going for "four more years" to extract, or rather to fool the American people that Nixon has extracted "peace with honor"; forgotten that Kissinger had~. opposed the VIetnam War--not when. It began with "advisers" In the Kennedy regime, nnt when it became genocidal war In the Johnson years, much less during the Nixon re­gime·. Dr. Strangelove Kissinger had always practiced "benign neglect" · that made sure wars woulci erupt In L9t1n America, Indeed,-~ them erupt, be It during the Bay of Pigs (and let's not forget those CIA agents, practiced In Incompetence there, were the ones directing Watergate) or the Chilean counter-revolution.

The wars at home--aqalnst th;, .;.ntl-war youth, against labor, against the Blacks, especially age.ln~t the Blacks--were the specialty

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of those Eastern intellectuals so favored by the Western president for their 11 theory 11 of "benign neglect" and practice of not-so-benign neglect.

The precise expression for their Eastern as well as \1\Testern so­called intellect Is: militarism. They practice militarization of the eco­nomy--and in this they also carried Congress wl'th them.

Militarization of lawless "law and order" police actions centered around the Black rlimension. And now our Harvqrd professor carries out militarization In what he bas the aoll to eall "tha ph!10sophic und<>rpln­ninqs" ·Of Nlxon 1s "State of the WCrld" niessage. PresentlY he has in­terpreted it as "responsibility" for others to practice, but not for them­selves.

Mean~h!le, not only is Secretary of State Kissinger also maintain~ lng the post of head of the National Security Council, but before he as­sumed that dual power-charged post, he had sent his "aide", General Haig, t.o take over the post of the Water9ate high command publ!c rela­tions. man, Haldeman.

And before that, Kissinger authorized the f'\!l to tap his closest associates I And as if all that were not enough, he kept friends with the Chilean lunta long before it achieved Its nee-fascistic coup In

··Chile. It becomes incumlJent upon us, therefore, to examine care­fully the three new threats that have surfaced with the present state of world counter-revolution:

First, in Chile itself, with the brutal murder of Allende (the . duly elected president with his musory parliamentaly majority); there has sprouted a new neo-fascistic "mass base"-··the middle class; in­cluding the professionals' the housewives' the rightist college youth.

Never before has this type of base been that active, that organ­Ized, that "respectable", and that willing to be led by_ the outright fascistic "Fatherland and Liberty," a military junta that began its "patriotic mission" by destroying the country's national palace, its whole history lying In ruins, spattered by the blood of its leaders extracted by the counter-revolutionaly junta and continuing with the murder of thousands of workers.

Second, so abys"lally corrupt is the Nixon Administration (and as the Vice President on the take showed, their corruption is by no means only l'lorally so) that thl'l ITT offer of a m!llion to stop Allende's election was far from being the l'>west point reached by the Republican Party.

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Rather, they key to American Imperialism's stranglehold on Ch!le-­the U.S. Intervention In Chilean affairs--was everywhere• from ha'vinq the 'World Bank withold credit from the Allende parliamentary government, to keeping money flowin'l freely co the junta planning that coup.

Keep In mind, please, that though at this very "point In time" the l' .S. Imperialist stranglehold was not In the form of outright invasion as was Kennedy's Bay of Pigs (which, moreover, was a failure); and though It was not In the form of LBJ's gunboats speedinq to the Doml-

. nic~n Republlc'(ln Chile, that neo-fasclstlc comprador military junta did It all by Itself); still, the old American dollar Imperialism achieved a new form d "benign (and not so be,nlgn) neglect" throu 1hout all of Latin America except Cuba.

Third, that which-was so phenomenal, so historic, so :!harp a 180-degree turnabout--Nixon's spectacular trip to Chlr.a--ls alreadY: In a thousand little pieces, as both rv:ao's China '(along with the ·· Arab lands) and Israel.allow not a single word about any "cease fire" to Infiltrate Into the U, N. chambers, Nothwlthstandlng the secret "peace" moves by the U.S. and U.S.S.R., the u.s. resupplies Israel and Russia urges other Arab lands, especially Its present favotite, Iraq, to enter the Middle East war, even when vicious fighting Is underway between Iraqi 'troops and K•Jrdlsh autonomist forces within 35 kilometers of Mosui In the heart of the Iraqi oil­

-fields (New York·Post, 10/13/73). 'What the superpowers don't· know Is' that diplomatic--and war! --ac:tlvlsm cannot abolish social revolts .•

. So overwhelmed, however, we~·e both Congressme1i and jour­nalists by the "brilliance" of the Harvard professor, so· great the 11 Pride 11 in their own "democracy11 that "a Jew born in Germany" has become Secretary of State, that none paid any attention to the truth that, In fact, they just voted for the most militarist­minded man ever In civilian clothe" to handle foreign policy.

It would Indeed be foolhardy to be deluded (as, no doubt, the· conceited egotist Kissinger!~) that It Is that "brlll!ant pro­fessor" and not the dirty ri7htlst politician and trickster, Presi­dent Nixon, who Is setting foreign policy, Nixon, not Kissinqer, set policy; Cold 1A'ar policies have become hot "peace" ones.

Nixon, no doubt, has underestl.l'1ated just hc;w great was the opportunity that came his way with the, Sino-Soviet conflict. For the other truth is that it wa~ not oo nouch the Nixon Doctrine that opened new doors. Rather, 1t was the new reality of power

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in a nuclear suoerpower world, when one of the two nuclear titans is undercut by China --with a iittle nucleat kngw-hgw. ZOO m!llign human beings and a Jot of Marxian verbiage, On top of it all, China has the longest­in-history common border with its "Enemy Nurrber One, .. Russia. In a word, this third "little" nuclear power sits astride both the borders of Russia it claims, and those of Southeast Asia that the U.s. has fa lied to conquer.

Thus did the "new world relations" arise from world real!t!es and detente become the new form of sharp confrontations. Knowing that, let us see what Nixon did learn from confrontations with that conflict as it relates to his hunger for world mastery; what is new In world relations; and how does he Intend using the "brilliant Harvard professor" to ra­t!onal!ze Pax Americana as nothing short of a global "philosophy."

So much attention has ·been given to Kissinger's predilection for studies of Mettemich•s 11 concert of Europe" and '1balance of powers ..

· strategy (as witness Kissinger's publ!c pol!cy last yeRr of a pentagonal world); and to B!smarck!an behavior with· friends that is every bit as hostile as with enemies (as- witness the· shock treatment Nixon admin­istered both to Japan and West Europe with his secretly planned spec­tacu!ar trip to China) that hardly any ·time was left to the "study" he was practicing .• I'm referring, of course, to the "study" (that's · what professors are for; they "study" everything--or have their stu­dents do so!) that suited Dr. Strangelove Kissinger best: Clausewitz's infamous theory that "war is extension of poUtics by other means." l!:!. reverse, Mixon-Kissinger, the practicioners of riever.-Emding wars, are now practicing politics as an extension of war b:• oth<:r means. It Is so at home, and abroad; with friends and with enemies; In N!xonland, It has become a way of life.

Thus, along with initiating his secret war in Cambodia, Nixon­Klssinger have initiated "peace treaties" that command-Asian to kill Asian just so that the continuation of war can proceed under the nomen-clatur~ of "peace with honor." ·· ·

Thus, N!xcn-Kissinger "tilted" American policy against their ally, India, and toward Mao's ally, Pakistan, at the very time Pakistan was conducting a genocidal war ag3!nst East Pakistani

Thus, in turning to trade with Russia, N!xon-I<iss!nqer did not stop the wheat deal to tilt it in any other way but for American oligopolies and against AmoricaQ_fa.t:"ler§ ,_ .a.\Jai~.s~ th~. /'!_m_erJ9l'.!LIJ.Ql!JieWifo. for re­sulting wlld Inflation.

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In a word, the Nixon Doctrine (which got both China and Russia to help "end" the Vietnam War so that the Big Powers can get on with their business) was directed not only against Indochina and for Nixon's re-election, but against world revolts, and those at home, especially against the anti-Vietnam War youth, be they on demonstrations, in exile, at the front, or AWOL or POWs, !.e., in prison, and always, always a1ainst the Black. Revolution.

Ironically enough 'but stlll alonq the planned line and in total ig­norance of·the spontaneous outbursts) Kissinger's Harvard colleague, the

. originator of the theory of "benign neglect" specifically of Blacks, Patrick ~'oynihan, has just used that theory to tilt slightly in favor of India by not charging it for the ·grain loaned it.· Of course, the loan was never meant" to be paid, but it sounds very benign to say: we give it to yoU-­well, almost; another part you'll pay in ten years and by then the tilt-inq may again be the other way. Having achieved this "miracle", Moyn­ihan is being offered a job in the State Department. Whether he wlll give up his post of l).mbassador to India to work as second fiddle in Kissinger's tight llttl.e ship here· Is not the question. ·

The point is that Kissinger•s 'way of practlc1ng'!'benlgn neglect 11 is: to carrv On politics as extension of war bY other means--arid vice versa-­not to mention designating our aqe oLwar an 11 D~c of peace." I

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II THE ECONOMY, THE v"ILDCATS, THE UNREST VS, "COMPETITIVE DECADENCE"

There is but one thing in that "year of Europe" (that was proclaimed back in April.and never carl'e to be) about which a private state-capitalist mentality like Nixon's has a rl1ht to feel "betrayed" by his capitalist co­rulers in Europe who, after all, were pro-Nixon.

No vratergates were necessary to trick VJest Europe•s rulers into . "voting" for Nixon. From the start (and before) they !.new· e><actly what was Involved for this putrid capitalistic system that h<1d long ou~!.ived its usefulness: each had his/her 196-1; .!l2.9!! has been kept in pieces ever since despite the fact that they came out tbe "victors."

Although the counter-r~volutlon not only has all the military might and the financial resources and the state power, and· desplt8 the fatal etror of the near-revoluti011 in falling to unite ·the philosophic vision of· liberation with it~ revolts, still so great was the fall of the Humpty Dumpty capitalistic system t~at all the superpowers in the world could not put Humpty Dumpty together again. ·

·Put more precisely, they all knew that "the enemy" was not abroad but at home. That is, they a !I considered their own masses--labor, youth, Women Liberationists and, ab:we all, minorities, Black or u1mmigraD-t

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labor--all these w2re their 11 real enemy 11 and·"therefore" they had to display !l:!gk class solidority with tl1at foreign nude~r power they hated

.and envied and depended on so much: Ni:>ronland-TJ .~_ .. ~.

Rather perceptively son·.3one has designated our age as one of "competitive decadence", which is why they could let intra-imperial­ist rivalries--from Brandt's ostpolltik to the secret bi-polar maneuver­logs between ~·ixon and Brezhnev; from U.S, "industrial helotry" to its financial arro-;Jance despite its fallin"' dollar value--win out over the invitation plus pro:nlse that some sort of "new Atlantic Charter" wo•J;d be forthcoming, By then, however, th_e Middle East eruption, not to mention the shocking Thailand overthrow, made the trip impos­sible, 0 Lord, we will have to suffer throu'Jh 1q74 all over agaln as 11 the year of ••• u

The point is that the !mperlcltstic solidarity across national boun­daries had even to foreqo what they knew to be truth against themselves for Pax Americana has never be en al:.andoned by Nixon, A• we wrote regarding Waterqate and "tho year of Europe" on the one hand and, on the other, a1ainst the labor bureaucracy, it all comes down to the

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question of labor and production. As we approach the latest on the economy, let•s refresh our memories with what we wrote then:

Nixon had never given up his vision of 11 the American cen­tury" which lasted but a few years in the euphoria of the im­mediate post-World War II universe when all the world lay prostrate and Arrerica alone had the A-bomb. Nixon, being a most ambitious man, determined 11 tO make history" his own retrograde way, Is ready to turn the clock of history back. He Is a man of the Taft-Hartley era, who wants to make sure the Black Revolution of the 1960s will not only be stopped In Ita tracks, but be rolled back forever.

Hence, his "Southern Strategy." Which is why the Water.­gates and all election chicanery cannot "e disentangled from his :concept of "na"!.iOntil s~curity 11 a~d 11 -;ilob~l re­sponsib!litles. (News & Letters, June-July, 19.73)

As against the lab~r bureaucracy that was playing around with management over "30 ·and·out" and still continues to do so, the proletariat broke out lnto·w!idcattlng, first and above all, over the inhuman c.ondltlons of labor, and sec­ondly' for a decent wage to stop running a continuous losing race a Jalnst runaway inflation. The very UAW b~reaucracy-­whose class-collaboratlonism did not stop even at the point of od!ous Informing on who_ were tha "radicals" at Chrysler plants, but went the whole hog to the class ·enemy when it called upon the pollee to eject workers from "the factories they occupied--had, at the same um·e, to admit the unsafe conditions that would now have to be given a high-priority rating. Whatever cover-up the labor bureaucracy will desire for its class-collaborationism and Its sure betrayal at con­tract:-signlng time, nothing can hide tlie fact that U Is~ prop for the whole exploitative system. The stench of Water­gate may not be on them, but that Is only because NIY.on never ·Invited them that high up. '£he point Is that the lying. forensic style of the President characterizes the labor bureaucracy as welL They are Indeed the last barrier to labor's control over its working conditions. (Draft Per­spectives, 1~73-1974, by Raya Dunayevskaya)

Now then, how has Phase IV (which the Draft thesis correctly named "How to 8r!ng on a Recession") been functioning? Just now they have found stlll another trusted conacrveti·Je, Dr. Fellner, to put on the President's Economic Council. and he evident11• does look toward "a solutury recession" to brin'J down wild Inflation; clearly, he prefers

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greater unemployment to !r.flation.

Prof. Fellner held a press conference 'reported In Christian Science Monitor, 10/1· /73) and told the public !lQl to expect that unemployment can be brought down below 5 percent through government Intervention. You know, when the Full Efl'ployment Act was Introduced at the end of World War II for fear of what the masses would think this war was fought for anyway, only one to two percent unemployment was considered ac­ceptable, I.e., the aged and sick who could not work, plus "a few others."

Suddenly with the Korear. War, three percent became "ccceptable" -­not exactly achieved with the end of that war but It was the "aim". But as the recessions began piling up, the ]\!ixon ern decided to "aim 11 for four percent unemployment and consider five percent unacceptable. Then, In 1972, after Nixon had assured us we were "the wonder of the world" for brlngln;~ down unemployment, but inflation went hog wild, the latest is let's go in for more unemployment I .

Please remember In this ju'!Jlinq that a single P"~·.1entage point . means another million un!',!l]Ployec;!_. To that add the fact that "average" of unemployment skips over ;;,rban unemployment which, far from "aver­ag.;ng'' five percent Is eight to ten percent. Now add to that Blacks and women which, In their areas, equal double the unemployed; Finally 'co:ne the youth, especially Black, whose unemployment rate they simply stopp~d countln)J.

But they are worried, so on that question of youth they are pro­posing tra!n!i'J programs plus scholarships. And what do you suppose that means? Well, Fellner Is proposing that the inln!mum wage be reduced for teen-agers so that both they and the unskilled can be ~ to accept undesirable johs. The demeaning capitalist mentallty does not stop there. The President's Economic Council (!';e., the President himself sending out trial balloons through his surrogates) Is proposing that the employ~ be granted tax Incentives to provide on-the-job train­Ing as If their profits aren't skyrocketln'J ever since Nixon got power and as soon as he had to face a decllne In the rate of profit, which he promptly "corrected" by planned unemplo)•ment and recession and forced a rise In labor productivity •. Finally, we arrive at unl:>rldled Inflation: a mini-recession (the new economists' vocabulary) Is supposed to cure that.

Not a single word Is to te found In that new vocabulary for the real producer of Inflation--the militarization of the economy, deficit financing for all of u.s. l!".perlallsm's ventures.

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On the contrary, the Congress which was supposed to have learned to separate itself from 11 executive privileges" has just been conned by the Pentagon to vote so fantastic an expenditure for the Trident that all other "defense" figures pale beside It,

And that at a time when SALT agreement was to have brou Jht us to the stage of reducln1 nuclear arma!l'ent expenditures, not to mention the Vietnam War which just "ended" and thus Is supposed to have released the $2 5 billion annually t:1at It cost. Far from reducing the defense budget which can produce nothing but destruction and lnflatlon--hocldng not only us but our children and grandchildren for generations--we are tilting that trillion dollar economy with ever further Inflation and lower production because, heaven forbid, more production ·means more wages and they wlll."bring on." inflation as If not having goods when some have plenty of money to pay will not send prices skyrocketing.

As for wheat deals. with Russia a'nd with our own monopolists that sent prices on such staples as bread -wild, we are not supposed to look at such 11 temporary11 issues·. Inst~ad, we are never to take our eyes off from the minimum wage whlch.has been maximized by them to be the cause of Inflation and "therefore" cut that bsre minimum when It comes to employment for teen-agers, and then cut welfare r<:>lls, and thereby, you see, they will all be forced to accept ''undesirable" jobs, not to . . mention the capitalistic hope that they will also learn to be strike-break­ers and pit themselves against "highly .salaried" unionized workers.

!V!eanwhlle, the labor bureaucracy has succeeded In selling out wildcatters who were rebellin'J a7ainst the Inhuman conditions of. labor. Which doesn't mean that workers w!li re.maln 'JUiescent about those un­bearable conditions of labor and "high wages" being eaten up ·by gallop­Ing Inflation. ·

Surely, "benign neJlect" will not ·contain the Bbck dimension, es­pecially here, where 9 0 percent of the production line !!.. Black. The Black Revolt never was fooled by the Nixon mania for secrecy, or the pittance of Black caplt~lism, 1r-uch leas by the· _galling retrogression In asking, at this late date, for le7islat!on against bussing I · The revolt will be 1 is , continuous.

And as we have just been shown from Thailand, th<l youth will not remain quiescent; let's never for·;yet that the 11 quiescent 11

, 11beat genera-

tion" youth of the 19S'ls produced the turbulent 1960s. The undecided question Is: How do all these fQ.J;Q.~J!_QLrf.l_volutlQ!I._~ce under • banner, a phA!QJ!..QRby_of l!!:>eraticn. Which Is why we must now tum to Philosophy and Revolution nsJ:. as result but as process.

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II I PHILOSOPHY AND REVOLUTION hS AN ON GO! Nr- PROCESS

Philosophy and Revolution as an ong·olng process rather than a final result is the need of th-3 hour, an~ "the hour11 is an historic perloo--the present mov-Ing toward the future. It Is actual.

The first thing we have to do to ,ru:actlce dialectics Is to hold In hancl, in mind, two opposites .. Thus, we are to look not alene at the new threats that have surfaced with the counter-revolution in Chile, the Middle East war In which we support neither side, much Jess con­sider them mere coincidences s_evt=red from the world situation.

But we also must consider the absolute·opposlte to the counter­revolutions spurting all arcund us···•the wildcatters that have begun il new phase In labor struggles, the youth who just toppled the military oligarchy In Thailand, the Black Dimension whl.ch, at this high stage of labor militancy, has sensed an affinity of Ideas with white labor In· struggle against the labor bureaL:cracy and with a philosophy of llberati'Jn.

Ancl, because we are going to view them philoso::>hlcal.ly, we wll! als>:~ take one more lock at the·rultJrs .In Nlx<mland and .its In­telligentsia. I doubt very much that Moynihan (and KfsslngP.r, much less that Idiot president, Richard Mllhous Nixon) kne\v that the 11 theory 11 of "benign negleCt 11 was but the lowest, mc·si. vulgar, empiric reductionism of what Hegel had designated as Absolu~ei Indifference. One of the mimy exciting characteristics of the works of that genius Hegel is that the Absolute Is not an ulti-mate which appears only at the end of "the system."

Far from Hegel's Absolutes· b<1lng tho ontological ultimate as­cribed to them,. there Is an Absolute In~ stage of cognition and of reality, In the Doctrine of Being, that Absolute Is the lowly. Ab­solute Indifference. What our Intellectual midgets never dreamed about In thinking up "benign neglect" Is that the philosophic In­difference likewise has movement, the movement emerging precisely from the neglect, the negative.

Hegel warns us that Absolute Indifference cannot "attain to Essence," but It Is a trai\Sitlon to it. Its dialectic: manifests It­self when It collapses, breaks down 1Qtally. We are then compel­led, If we wish to mo'IE> forward, t-. start all over ag'!ln with new· beginnlngo, new categories, d!ffetent types of measures.

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Those new categories In the Doctrine of Bssence--Show, Ap­pearance, Ground, etc.--abound In the all-pervading Contradiction which keeps multiplying, deepening, until It bursts Into total crisis, Actuality. Reaching for the Absolute like a bolt out of the blue, they cannot attain to Subject, become enmeshed In Absolute Substance, a high enough stage way past Indifference, the mark of another great philosopher; Splnoza. The merit In his philosophy, Marx saw, was In his recognition that "every determination Is a negation." If you · say this Is, you're also saying that Is not. But It Is not second negativity. Rather, It Is the Great Divide Hegel marked off from all other systems as be discovered that only Subject, self-negativity, absolute negativity, can resolve contradiction.

Now then, for returning to politics In the present historic period-­just look at Actuality as Czechoslovakia at the point when Russian tanks rolled in to destroy Its revolt. Russia must have thought It wori1 their absolute being totalitarianism, located !n Moscow, and that Is what Cz.echoslovakla was aubjected to In totQ.. Russia has a "right" to delude ltself·that Its power is invincible. since the Czechoslovak Re­volution was stifled at its very birth, anq the.terror that peryades the whole of East Europe "proves" the Brezhnev Doctrine rules more un­contestedly than ever did the Nixon I:loctr!ne in Southeadt Asia ·with its napalm bombs. · .

, · And yet, Isn't It a fact that Pax Roslya, even when no revolution has yet emerged, has now so many contradictions gnawing at It that Maoism, which never before formed any focal point for Czechoslovak revolutionaries, Is now a point of attraction? And that means another state power, which is the one thing that totalitarians do understand, Is· now around In one form or another In Its own backyard. Moreover, a state power that uses pseudo Marxist terminology plus [>hllosophy.

You know, It really Is funny how philosophy these days gets to everyone. Suddenly that super-Establishment New York Times cor­respondent who voted Nixon tho•1gh h!s paper did not has suddenly become a spets, not just on the politics of Europe, but of China, and not just on politics but philosophy. I'm of course .talking about C. L. Sulzberger who has been sending fantastically lauda·lory arti­cles out of China that compete with his colleague Reston's when. he was there and swallowed hook, line and sinker all that Ch_ou fed hlm on the "remll!tarlzed" Japan and no forward movement possible with Nixon unless he first agrees to "give up" Taiwan.

Well, now that Sulzbergor hac m.:ddenly blossomed forth as "philosopher," he wrote on the "Use of Contradiction" (New York 1!l!lru!, 10/14/73) with a magical sweep. First he goes to ancient

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China and the novel "Roll"ance of the Three Kingdoms". That novel, you 'iee, is what passed muster during the "Cultural RBvo!utton" and won approval ~r.Jm "t!..e Chairman... Fron anc!-ant Ch!na. he:-. leap.o all the way to !940, whe!1 Mao made a spePcil that Is suppose~ to fit ex­actly the situation In 1973. It he!.\ that 1t was neceo <ary "To !l'ake use of contradiction~, win over the many, oppose the f8w, and crush enemies one by one. 11 (Dayan, with or without "Con~radictlons", is surely Its best executor. And what militarist Isn't?)

Now what is the upshot of all this on October 14, !973? Ah, therein Is the rub. It seems that "the Chinese" had already explained to "the French" that there are two different (sic I) imperialisms--

. "defensive" and "ofiensive." (! 1m sure those subjected to imperialism for centuries will ba happy to hear that "some" were for 11 defens1ve"·. purposes!)

So, concludes Su!zberger, qucitlr•g. the Chairman and Chou and himself:· 'What this of course means Is that there Is 1io longer any fear of American attack, but great fear of Soviet attack'." Why not tell 'so simple an opportunistic state-capitalistic policy wlth'out re- . course to philosophy? After all, the only concrete ·point be Is br!Lg­lng out Is the allegedly easy road Kissinger wlll have for his October 26th trip--If ever he gets there now that other areas have erupted

-without his approval and the Middle East war overshadows Cambodia, ·which Is the real reason. for that trip. To get Mao to force .Sihanouk Into another "peace with honor" should be easy for our Mettemlch expert.

So why the need for the needles sly comp!eY. ~ chaotic, dreary . tale of the Chairman's hybrid love for an ancient Chinese novel, a 1940 battle, and a 1973 Invitation to a "defensive" Imperialist spokesman, Dr. Strangelove Kissinger?

It.is not to be dismissed just because it Is so totally Illogical. The !!mn Is philosophic by no accident: in its way It proves Philoso­phy and Revolution Is not just a book; !t k the characteristic of the age. Philosophy Is in the air. -·The passion for philosophy equals the passion for liberation and that prec!sel y because the masses wish passionately to move away from aborted revolutions and ask: how? ~? HOW? .

Are the rulers merely deluding themselves that, with philosophy, they can get the "Left" to f"llow !hf.lJ!? Judging by even that section of the Left that looks for philosophy but is enamored with the Frankfurt School dialecticians, there Is morr than a grain of truth In the delusion

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of Mao, Here--Frankfurt, I mean--was a School, back in 1923 when It was founded, but especially In the 1930s, who rejected Reformism and wished also Independence from existing state Marxism, and who wished !!£!to be mere academics, shouting to the skies praise of · praxis. That they preferred aphorisms to Hegel's "Absolutes" Is no accident, though it would take a book to explain in full how apho­risms, l!ke guerrilla shortcuts, are neither revolution. nor philosophy, The point here is that like any sophistrv, aphorisms can serve oppo­sites, both acedemics and mindless activists,

So do l!sten to how revolutionary it can sound, The current favorite Is from Adorno: "Philosophy which once seemed outmoded is now al!ve because the moment.of its real!zat!on has been missed," Tlie.single grain of truth in this statement--we surely haven't "real-i .. ed" philosophy in the Marxian .sense of achieved total freedom-­shouldn't that act as spur to "realize" it, rather than· make philo­sophy as still one. other (orm of escapism? And doesn't it call for the~ truth Marx singled out, that the bourgeoisie and Its intellectual prizefighters could not realize it since bourgeois con­sciousness WaS false COnPCiOUS~S, mere ideology rather than 8 total outlook, a philosophY, of liberation? ·

Trans,lated into action, or, more precisely put, unified with action, shouldn't that compel resistance !lm!J. to Stalinist "peace­ful co-existence" (that, in ~he concrete, today, also envel<ii'\S Mao's China*) .!!!l!!. Che-typa guerrilla warfa~e as ifthat hadn't also failed? 'Why not, instead, go, for once·, back to Marx and. work out for.!!!!!!. age.the unity of philosophy and revolution, · theory and practice, and not via any pseudo-socialist parlia-mentarism? · ·

I'd hate to have to count how many pamphlets will now be written on the "dialectics of revolution," all offe;ing new blue­prints for new "strategies," none of which will reveal the slight­est awareness of the Marxian dialectics that it is impossible to.

* I'm referring to the fact that the ·chlleans in Peking had to call off the memorial they planned for Allende because, evidently, Mao's Chill& is preparing to recognize the counter-revolutionary mllltary junta In Chile as :\hg_ government. Meanwhile, Russia has finally decided to recognize Slhanouk as the Cambodian government, There is rio end to. the maneuverings resulting from the Sino-Soviet conflict any more than there is an end to other more oonvention.il intre-'tmper­iallst conflicts. Marxists cannot bother "to take sides" In such con­tests, but must work only from totally other, proletarian, Marxist­Humanist grounds,

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tear out, root and branch, the old decrepit society and the "new" state-capitalist one calling Itself Communist unless that struqryle Is governed by absolute negativity--the Marxlan.Jlb1>sophy of liberation.

If we are to practice dialectics, !i.:' •,l:i, lat' s take a second look at Chapter One of Philosophy and itv•olutlon --" Req~l' s Abso­lutes As New Beginnings." The title Isn't sor•ethlng to be learned by rote, nor can it becomo3 mere d0finition, t~~1f!OJ"'C·e=-.!·.~.La? j:hat !.!1 itself would b~, slt,,_··e: ail, Mannsts and non-Jv'i3rx~. :.:1 aH :.~, have always looked-at ab:.olute as ultimate, rathe,· than d s new !;eginning.

Still, If lt.were ieft as mere definition 111stead of a compelliQg methodology for every single new event, objective and subjective, national, lntemat!on31, local, organizational (whetl:&r thet be ~r­ganization a.§_QarS~lves, or as mass activity), r,o c.•i .. c:!ction ~ould flow to the action In any given situation.

Let me try. to put it another way. The dialectic method, that "algebra of revolution, •• is not just a.mathemat!CI51 formula, or tool, conceptual or "strategic," for penetrating the contradictions of reality, serious a task as that is, The very fact tJ1at Hegel employs the word,

· Absolute, not tolone to Idea but•to Methodoiogy--the llbsoiut!" Method being the dialectic of negativity, absoh•t.'l negativity--means that "new beginning'' iS 8 prOCe_SS ,·a beCOming 1 never a mere being; dlWBYS 8 becom!rul. As we saw all the way from Absolute Indifference in the '

·Doctrine of Being, through ActualltY in the Doctrine of Essence, the "result," the Notion inseparable from Reality, was there from the beginning but it' couldn't possibly manifest itself excopt through. development, could bAcome full-blown cnly when th~ ob!e.ctive and the subJective found unity In a subJect.

To point to that is our uniqueness. It comes in with new begin­nings, whether these be wildcatters and youth, Blacks and Women Llteratlonists, nnd even intellectuals who can no longer stand the oppressive reality and hunger to root out contradictions with all these new forces and passions and Reason of Revolution.

And when someone asks: "Yes, but what can we do?", is It really inconsequential when, along with pointing to the activities we.are enqaged in, for us to say: Yes, we also are working out a philosophy, practicing dialectics, not alone In theory but in organi­zation, for with us It is not "the p~rty to lead" that is the unifying force, but Marx's philosophy?

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If we limit ourselves to a single Issue of News & Letters, this Is true. If we limit ourselves to the period between Draft and the present presentation, (whether In form of Report, or of new lead on the Middle East, or preparation for selling Ph!losophy and Revolution), this Is true. And It certain)Y....llL!_rue when we go back to our roots, the Constitution. No one ct.n stop short of that little word, · d!a­lectlcs, philosophy, or tr.y to confine it to what has been done by others --not only the cultural Frankfurt School, but even· by Lenin , without whom we certainly could not possibly have reached. the present stage ti1eciretlcal!y' any ·more than we could have caught the new without the 1953 East German Revolt from·pract!ce.Never­theless' even Lenin, .from whose ph!losoph!c ground we takljl off,_' left us an ambivalent ph!losophic luaritage and, of course, couldn't poss!bly.ha;,e foreseen the problems of our age. No, only we ·could have done that. · : ; · · ·

Our uniqueness is in no way elitist, precisely because it is the unit.yof the movement from practice as well as•frorit'theoly, in

. native roots ·as well as intemat,ional. . .

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IV TASKS

Great Divides mark off one age from another In philosophy as well·as in economics, in politics as In theory--the stages In cogni­tion Inseparable from Reality because they signify totally new human relations that are to follow from revolution.

The uniqueness of Philosophy and Revolution, of Absolutes as New Beginnings, signifies the unity of worker and Intellectual 'not as if.§~ retained his. cr her own role and were 11 together 11 in a· "single" organization, Rather, from the beginning It meant not only that the workers were taklnq on jobs that were considered prerogatives of intellectuals, like editor of the paper, but' 'that not as the exception, but as the rule.

In a word, the. whole paper Is i:un by workers a swell as by · intellectuals as· well as by women, not merely as "assistants" but

In leadership roles, All are subordinated ta· but cine vision--a philosophy ·af liberation--Marx's Humanism, Which is why we have turned to our tasks not as anything just internal, but the compelling need of the age in total crisis. · .

"First and foremost in this year of Philosophy and Revo­.l!!!!!m is spreading wide, sellln~ Philosophy and' Revo­lution, not as salespersons, but as .founders of Marxist­Humanism i11 the. U.s, as well as projectors of world . concepts of revolution:·proletarian, peasant, Black, youth, Women's Liberation, national and international-­all the 11 new passions and forces ... that are Reason for reconstruction of society on totally new l!.!!ml!!! founda­tions. Only by projecting the unity of philosophy and . revolution as organization builder can we counteract elitism--"the party to lead" --and at the same time elicit from below that elemental revolt motivated by the passionate search for a philosophy of liberation which has governed their action because It Is their unifying force, that which gives action its direction. " (Draft Perspectlces, 1973-74)

Though In the concrete the tasks get discussed not here, but at the Organizational Session, nevertheless I would like, at least briefly, to develop what goes Inseparably with Philosoph!' and Revo-

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lutlon, proletarianization--not Just in the sense of getting new mem­bers, but of ourselve•. Juet as Marx singled out the proletariat as ~ revolution~zy force not for romantic reasons but for their pivotal role in :t~roduc~lon, so we enter the factories not just to listen-­surely paramc,u!lt--nor only to be "full fountain pens"--<> l:.ay to News & Letters ex!stence-··but also because we c::an project Mar .. <ist­Humanism as pivotal In their lives.

And in that we make sure that we will "realize" philosophy, that Is, make Freedom real.

*

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